Confusion mars CUET UG 2022 Phase II exam; Netizens express anger

New Delhi, July 05: The first shift of the Common University Entrance Test for admission to undergraduate programmes in Central Universities (CUET UG) on Thursday was postponed for various centres in 17 states while its second shift was cancelled across all centres due to administrative and technical glitches, the National Testing Agency (NTA) said.

"Due to various administrative and technical reasons, the CUET (UG) - 2022 examination scheduled for August 4, 2022 (first shift) has been postponed to August 12, 2022 for a few examination centres," read the official notice.

Since the morning of phase 2 exam, students had been complaining about technical slags at their exam centres. Due to this, examinations at several centres were cancelled by the NTA last minute due to "server issues."

While many students claimed that they couldn't complete their papers due to technical snags and would have to reappear for the exam NTA maintained that CUET for college admissions is going on smoothly in over 95 per cent centres.

Parents alleged the exams were cancelled without any prior notice to the students, leaving them in a state of confusion. They said they have been stranded in rain and there has been no communication by the NTA so far. Candidates even expressed anger on micro-blogging site Twitter to complain about alleged mismanagement of the national competitive test.

The question paper for the second slot was uploaded late, according to the agency's announcement. The CUET exam was scheduled to begin at 3 pm, but because the question papers weren't posted until after 5 pm, NTA was forced to cancel the second shift entirely.

"In case, the 12-14 August 2022 is not suitable, the candidates can send an e-mail to [email protected] mentioning their desired date and roll number," NTA said in its statement.

Moreover, due to heavy rain in many districts of Kerala in the past few days, NTA has postponed CUET UG 2022 to August 4, 5 and 6, 2022.

The University Grants Commission, or UGC, chief Jagadesh Kumar had in March announced that CUET scores, and not Class 12 marks, would be mandatory for admissions to 45 central universities which can fix their minimum eligibility criteria.

Overall around 14.9 lakh candidates have registered for the CUET UG within the country and outside the country. Around 8.1 lakh candidates have appeared in the first phase which held on July 15. Meanwhile, about 6.8 lakh candidates will appear in the second phase of the entrance test.